And the 'Dancing With the Stars' Winner Is ...

Tonight's 'Dancing With the Stars' finale began with three finalists: ESPN reporter Erin Andrews, Olympian Evan Lysacek and Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger. And after a season of stiff competition, one of these competitors walked away with the mirror ball trophy.

The big finale featured dancing appearances by Kate Gosselin, Pam Anderson, Niecy Nash and Jake Pavelka. Football star Chad Ochocinco was scheduled to dance, but an injury kept him off the floor.

So, after a season of waltzing around the dance floor, which contestant walked away with the big prize? Find out after the jump. (Spoiler ahead!)

Nicole Scherzinger and partner Derek Hough proved too good to beat, and the pair was named the new 'Dancing With the Stars' champions.

About halfway through the show, Andrews and her partner, Maksim Chmerkovskiy, were sent home as Lysacek and Scherzinger were named the two finalists. Their goodbye moment was sweet -- Andrews kissed her partner on the cheek and thanked everyone.

After the final dances by the two remaining pairs, Scherzinger's was named the winner, scoring 30 points to Lysacek's 28.

I spoke to many, many people who watch the show (I live in a building of 200 and have extended family and friends as they do) and polled them all (as they did) over their votes in the past 6 weeks. Not ONE of the contestants these people voted for are in the finalists.

It may be an unofficial poll, but we all feel something is rotten in Denmark AND at Dancing With The Stars!

ever look in the mirror maybe you would gag your self, leave her alone you don't know her , maybe you gag her, people are so freaking idiotic, just by what you see and read in the paper and news you think she is a horrible person grow the he.. up

The 1st poster here has a great name but no brain. I think any of the 3 finalists could have won .Nicole was the best, but she's a dancer and a singer so it showed right off the bat. But man how about that figure on Edyyta .....hot

I don't think it's fair to put a dancer up against a housewife, a football player, an airline pilot, TV actors, etc. At least the ice skater had experience with jumps and spins, but the rest of the cast didn't stand a chance against Nicole.

Nicole was good, but so were Evan & Erin! I was kinda of hoping that one of the other 2 would have won since Nicole had a leg up on both of them by already being a dancer. I wasn't surprised that she won, however I was kinda disappointed! Not to mention that Derek has won this 2 or 3 times now, where as the other 2 have never won it!!

Well Julianne, Cheryl and Mark have all won 2 times each as well. Guess there is some thing to be said for a good teacher. I mean look how much Erin improved. Maybe there should be some credit given for that.

This was Derek's 2nd win. So, what is your point in saying that the other pros have not won yet? Are they supposed to take turns winning so nobody is sad? Sure, I would love to see Edyta win (besides seeing someone look as great as she does), but the stars she has been partnered with just don't have the skills or potential of the ones who have been finalists. Also, Derek is an incredible choreographer.

The show lost credibility with me last season when Donnie Osmond, who has been dancing since age 4,won. When this season started, they introduced Nicole as a choreographer. Derek has said many times this season, that Nicole is teaching him. Why put her against novices. Makes no sense. However, I do hope Maks and Erin start to date, if they don't already. They look beautiful together.

I agree with those saying that the playing field should be fair. I have to say a clip was shown on tv of Nicole crying because she missed up and she said I'm a professional I have never made a mistake like that. HMMM!!! If this continues, I'll join a bunch of other people I know of that have quite watching. They need to change the name to Stars Dancing with Stars.